All signs point to a strong recovery … except those signs over there. They point to Armageddon.

In other words, it's business as usual on the economic front.

Here's proof — two articles, published on successive days, citing separate economic reports.

The first, published on April 14 by the The Wall Street Journal, cites a Deloitte study in claiming that businesses won't hire until they see a jump in revenue of at least 20 percent — even though corporate earnings have enjoyed double-digit growth over the past year and half.

“The quarterly survey … found that nearly half of respondents would seriously consider adding employees if revenues rose 20 percent, but few would be moved by a 5 percent increase,” writes The Journal's  Emily Chasan. “A 10 percent bump in revenue would only be a major hiring consideration for 11 percent of CFOs. Worse yet, perhaps, actual growth isn’t expected to reach such heights: Respondents estimate top line growth at North American companies will be just 8.2 percent this year.”

But wait: The very next day, Business News Daily cited the American Express OPEN Spring Small Business Monitor while writing this: “Business owners are expecting to hire this year and make investments in capital improvements.” For good measure, the article adds this: “Thirty-seven percent (of small business owners) expect to grow this year and 56 percent are willing to take a financial risk to do so.”

Who's right?

Anyone have a coin? Heads, I win …